Price of Mail Increasing Sunday

COLUMBIA - Saturday is the last day to buy stamps before the price goes up.

Starting Sunday, the price of a letter will go up 3 cents to 49 cents, which is the largest increase in prices since 2002.

While 3 cents may not sound like a lot, the US Postal Service said in a news release that they expect the increase to create $2 billion of additional revenue for the department, which recorded a loss of $6 billion last year.

Usually, the price of stamps keeps up with inflation, but the extra bump this year was help close the USPS's budget defecit.

Besides stamps, other mail prices are increasing as well. Popular items like express mail flat rate envelopes will increase from $19.95 to $19.99 and large flat rate boxes will go up to $17.45 from $16.85. The higher rates will also apply to magazines, newspapers, advertising mail and bills.

For costumers who don't want to spend more, one option is buying Forever Stamps. Forever Stamps, as the name implies, stay valid forever even if prices continue to go up in the future.

The US Postal Service says it processed 160 billion pieces of mail in 2012.